TWD: Pea-NOT-tiest Blondies

I made my last Houston-New Orleans commute on Friday, October 29th and the next morning I pulled out my pans and started BAKING. Yahoo! An almost two month exile from my kitchen and my weekly Tuesdays with Dorie fix was finally at an end.

And what was I fortunate enough to get to bake?
Peanuttiest Blondies.
Lucky Me. One of my favorites.

This week’s selection was made by Nicole of Bakeologie. The recipe can be found on page 119 of Dorie Greenspan’s book: BAKING From My Home to Yours, or on Nicole's blog site.

Now I’m a great lover of Peanuts and Peanut Butter, but my family falls more on the “great hater” side of the Peanut Butter fence. So I had to make some minor adjustment to Dorie’s fabulous recipe. I subbed Almond Butter for the Peanut Butter and replaced the peanuts with a medley of four nuts: almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, and pecans.

It was yummy. Moist, chewy and oh-so nutty... So my version my not be Peanuttiest Blondies, but they are certainty the Nuttiest Blondies.

TWD: Chewy, Chunky Blondies

Nicole of Cookies on Friday picked this week’s Tuesday with Dorie selection: Chewy, Chunky Blondies.

Chewey, gooey, and oh-so sweet, but sadly not my favorite “Dorie” recipe. I prefer more “cake-like” brownies/blondies so the gooeyness of these blondies made me a little sad. Sad that I had to eat the whole pan and not enjoy it only little bit. NOT one bit I tell you.



I did love the look and taste of the uncooked cookie dough. Yumm…



Side note on the job front… My 30-day temp job was due to end on July 30th, but today I was added as a speaker for an August 6th meeting??? I’ll have to ask my boss tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed. Maybe I’ll be getting a paycheck for a few more weeks.

MS: Brown Butter Toffee Blondie

TOO SWEET!

That was my first impression of Martha Stewart's Brown Butter Toffee Blondies. Ultra sweet, tooth achingly sweet, hyperactive kids bouncing off the walls sweet.


The mixing process for the Brown Butter Blondies started with, surprise, surprise, browning butter. I had never browned butter before, and instead of being prudent and watching a how-to video on YouTube I just kinda winged it. In hindsight I think I browned it a little too much (okay I burned it), but the scorched butter didn't seem to negatively affect the taste.


See all the black flecks floating around? That's the butter :(

But I didn't let crispy butter stop me.

And the batter ended up looking luscious, black specks and all.


I didn't have the walnuts that the recipe recommended so I substituted macadamia nuts. And because white chocolate and macadamias go hand-in-hand, I subbed 1/2 cup of toffee chips with 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips. Look at that mound of chunky batter. I would give you the spatula to lick if I could.


So this Martha recipes gets a thumbs up (from both me and the party goers), but be aware that it is very, very sweet. If you like cakier blondies, you might want to try a different recipe.